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Futurist Manifesto

The Futurist Manifesto, written by the Italian poet Filippo Tommaso Marinetti, was published in French in Le Figaro on 20 February 1909. It launched an art movement, Futurism, that rejected the past; celebrated speed, machinery, and industry; and sought the modernisation and cultural rejuvenation of Italy. The Founding and Manifesto of Futurism allows a sharper comprehension of a cultural evolution in Italy at the beginning of the 20th century, meant as an intellectual avant-garde.

The limit of Italian literature at the end of the "Ottocento," its lack of strong contents, its quiet and passive laissez faire, were fought by Futurists (see art. 1, 2, 3), and their reaction includes the use of excesses intended to prove the existence of a dynamic surviving Italian intellectual class.

In this period, in which industry is of growing importance in all Europe, Futurists need to confirm that Italy is present, has an industry, has the power to take part in the new experience, and will find the superior essence of progress in its major symbols: the car and its speed (see art. 4). Nationalism is never openly declared, but is evident.

Also, futurists insist that literature will not be overtaken by progress; rather, it will absorb progress in its evolution, and will demonstrate that such progress must manifest in this manner because Man will use this progress to sincerely let his instinctive nature explode. Man is reacting against the potentially overwhelming strength of progress, and shouts out his centrality. Man will use speed, not the opposite (see art. 5 and 6).

Poetry, the voice of spirit, will help Man to consent his soul be part of all that (see art. 6 and 7), indicating a new concept of beauty that will refer to the human instinct of aggression.

The sense of history cannot be left aside: this is a special moment, many things are going to change into new forms and new contents, but Man will be able to pass through these variations, (see art. 8) bringing with himself what comes from the beginning of civilisation.

One of the most particular articles is article 9, in which war is defined as a necessity for the health of human spirit, a purification that allows and benefits idealism. Some have said that this apology of militarism by Futurists influenced the ideology of Fascism.

The heavy provocation included in article 10 is a logical consequence of the preceding articles: "We want to demolish museums and libraries, fight morality, feminism and all opportunist and utilitarian cowardice."

This manifesto was published well before the occurrence of any of the 20th Century events which are commonly suggested as a potential concrete meaning behind this text. Many of them could not even be imagined yet. For example, the Russian Revolutions of 1917 were the first of the sort "described" by article 11, yet the first of those occurred fully eight years after the Manifesto's publication.

The violent breaking effect of the manifesto is even more evident in the original Italian. Not one of the words used is casual; if not the precise form, at least the roots of these words recall those more frequently used in the Middle Ages, particularly during the Rinascimento.